Rooney: “I never asked to leave United”

Wayne Rooney has denied handing a transfer request during Sir Alex Ferguson’s last season at Manchester United, claiming he was shocked at the way the conversation made its way to the press.

Following United’s 2-1 win over Swansea in Fergie’s last game at Old Trafford, the former United manager said Rooney, who was left out of the side on the day, had handed in a transfer request and wanted to leave the club in the summer.

However, the England captain, who was linked with a move to Chelsea throughout the summer of 2013, until he signed a new five-year deal a couple of months later, denied ever demanding to be sold.

“I went in to see him and just said, ‘If you are not going to play me, it might be better for me to move on’,” Rooney said in a BBC documentary entitled Wayne Rooney – The Man Behind The Goals.

“Then, all of a sudden, it was all over the press that I had put a transfer request in, which I never did. I don’t know what happened and why that came out that way.”

Rooney went on to admit he did not always see eye-to-eye with Fergie, but described him as the “greatest manager of all times”.